Environment Minister Donna Faragher today announced that $1.27million would be allocated over the next 18 months for a fauna reconstruction project at Lagoon Point in Shark Bay’s Francois Peron National Park.
Mrs Faragher said the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) would pave the way for increasing the populations of threatened species by creating a feral-animal-free area of approximately 1,600 hectares within the park.
“DEC will construct a 3.9 km exclusion fence and remove all feral animals from the fenced peninsula area so specific species can be introduced in an environment free from feral predators,” she said.
“Captive-bred mala and banded-hare wallabies will then be released into this area so that these threatened species can survive and reproduce in a protected area.
“The new funding will also be used to initiate an intensive captive breeding program for these two species to continue to improve the genetic diversity of their populations.
“The long term aim of the project will be to provide a secure mainland site for possible transfer of animals to Dirk Hartog Island as part of the ecological reconstruction of the island.”
The funding allocation will be distributed to three integral projects and provide for:
1. the establishment of a predator-free island within the Francois Peron National Park, to be created by fencing off a peninsula into Shark Bay
2. a new and expanded program involving re-establishment of populations of threatened species at former sites across Western Australia, which is a key step to eventually being able to delist the species as threatened
3. emergency feral cat control and intensive survey and management of remaining habitat areas to prevent the western ground parrot from facing extinction.
The Minister said the project would dovetail into the work of ‘Project Eden’ which aimed to control introduced predators to protect native wildlife and has been run by DEC with the help of volunteers on Peron Peninsula for more than a decade.
“This program tackled one of the five key priority areas the State Government had outlined for managing our natural resources - biosecurity, water quality, biodiversity, climate change adaptation and integration of natural resource management (NRM) and planning,” Mrs Faragher said.
“It also fits in with the strategic approach of NRM and it links in with a number of other projects that aim to restore our threatened species.”
The funding is part of the State Government’s $30million NRM program which brings together a number of government agencies and policies.
Earlier today, the Minister announced the creation of a national park on Dirk Hartog Island, which would become the home of many of the animals bred in the Lagoon Point project.
Minister's office - 9213 7250